Good balance prolongs life | everybody

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sA lot of the time we talk about “feeling off balance,” owning a bad or good person, or about training them. Or we talk about the organs of balance and think that they are in the inner ear.

But balance is neither a mind nor an organ, says Eva Ekvall Hansson, a professor of physical therapy and one of Sweden’s leading experts on dizziness and balance.

The fact that we can maintain our balance, or find it difficult to do so, depends on a finely calibrated system in which the whole body is involved and where all the sensory organs work together in an absolutely incomparable way.

After all, we were made to be able to run barefoot in the rugged savannah, shoot a wild animal and hit the fly, which is why so many different parts of the body have to contribute so that we can be in balance.

Your vision affects balance

Sight is fundamental to us in order to maintain balance. Those who are seen quickly find it more difficult not to swing if their eyes are closed. The joints, muscles, and all the signals sent from them are also important, but the sensation of the skin also helps tell the brain where the body is in the room.

Just placing our fingertips very lightly on the wall makes it easier for us to keep our balance. It’s not about holding on but about helping the brain interpret our situation with a light touch. Unparalleled, isn’t it?

Eva recalls an interesting case:

– He lost the ability to keep his balance and trained it again. If he wakes up in the morning and has loss of balance and dizziness, he puts his fingertips on his temples, and that helped. His brain was then helped to understand where his body was in the room and he could easily regain his balance.

Good help when we get stuck

Balance is scientifically defined as the body’s ability to maintain a center of gravity above a support surface. This means standing straight on your feet without tipping over. But in everyday life we ​​also often mean to maintain the so-called control after morality, that is, to maintain and restore balance, if we move, or even stumble.

The ability to balance can decline with age, rarely caused by any one defect in the body. Most of the time, all of these signals that are supposed to work together become a little weaker and no longer send such sharp signals to the brain.

The investigations that can be done often do not show any deviations because the changes are so small. But when you add these little changes, all of a sudden we don’t have the same ability we used to.

Balance can be practiced at any age

But you shouldn’t settle for doctors who say “it depends on age and there’s nothing you can do about it,” says Eva Ekvall Hansson.

Aging is a slow process of deterioration, that is. And in this process of deterioration, the balance can be affected. But it is not something one should tacitly accept.

No matter how old you are, you can always train balance

– It doesn’t matter how old you are. Balance can always be practiced. With simple means, you can restore large portions of your ability to balance.

The expert explains that doing so is important. Poor balance often leads to limitations in daily life through activities that you cannot handle or do not dare to do.

Poor balance increases the risk of injury

It also increases the risk of getting into accidents, which is the biggest risk that even the elderly can be exposed to.

Up to a third of all people over the age of 65 have had to seek care after a fall, and half of those over the age of 75. More than a thousand people die every year after falling.

A third of people over 65 years of age have had to seek care after a fall

The condition itself is rarely serious, but the complications that can come with bone fractures, hip injuries, and subsequent immobility are often lifelong and in many cases also life-threatening. Therefore, it is important that you do what you can to avoid falls. Including exercise balance.

An imbalance affects daily life

But other parts of life can also be affected if the balance becomes too poor.

Riding the bus can be difficult. Or between rows of seats in the theatre. Or go for a walk or complete your regular workout at the gym. And then it becomes easy to become sedentary, lose your social context and become depressed. An imbalance can have significant effects on quality of life.

But these sensory signals to the brain, which weaken over the years, can remain in shape with the help of simple exercises at home, which are aimed at challenging balance and thus strengthening it.

It’s never too late to exercise balance

Keeping moving, even in old age, is very important to our well-being. The balance that is maintained makes it easier, and the movement itself contributes to better balance. It will be a positive spiral that is important to maintain, says Eva Ekvall Hansson.

– And the best thing is that it’s never too late. It is always possible to start where you are now, and with the right challenge and patience strengthen all the parts that contribute to giving us a good balance.